Westley Allan Dodd.
Westley Allan Dodd was as bad as they came, beginning his sick crimes at just the age of 13 when he would expose himself to children passing by his window. This was Westley’s first indication of his further crimes to come. He was then reported to police which led him to travel further away from home to expose himself to children. Already Westley was escalating, finally realising the fantasies he had. He first molested his two cousins aged 6 and 8, before then having sexual intercourse with his 8 year old cousin. Throughout his youth Westley continued to molest children by placing himself in a position of power, taking jobs as a babysitter and then molesting the children once they were asleep. Socially isolated and intimidated by girls, Westley stayed home thinking of different ways to abuse children. Dodd would use games to trick small children into undressing or committing sexually explicit acts. He would play tug of war by tying the end of string between his penis and a childs, and also would offer children money to play strip poker with him. Dodd was caught for some of these crimes however was merely ordered to attend counselling rather than serve a jail term. It is clear that these sessions did not work in the slightest as Westley carried on just the same way, later stating he would do anything to go back to harming children. “Each time I ended treatment, I continued to molest children. I liked molesting children and did what I had to do to avoid jail so I could continue molesting”.
Dodd continued molesting children before joining the navy at aged 20. He claimed he would have been killing within the year had he not joined the navy. During his time in the navy Dodd would continue coaxing children to isolated areas in order to abuse the children once they were alone. He was arrested trying to pay a group $50 to play strip poker with him. Once the navy caught wind of this arrest he was discharged at the age of 21.
Upon leaving the navy his fantasies became increasingly sick, as detailed in his own diary. He was arrested for molesting a 10 year old boy however was given just a 1 year suspended sentence which kept him out on the streets and molesting young children. At age 23 he was then arrested for molesting a 13 year old boy and sentenced to 10 years in prison however this was reduced to an incredible 4 months as long as Westley undertook counselling. It seems shocking to me that someone with a criminal record and prior offences can be considered for such a reduced sentence. Even taking away the repeat offences this crime is surely serious enough to warrant more than 4 months in jail!
Westley now, however, began to become more excited about killing a minor. In one diary entry he stated “Now ,when I got to Seattle, I had learned I was less likely to be reported for a molestation than for an attempt. I decided from now on I would be a little more forceful. I would no longer accept no as an answer to my requests.” It's clear to see how confident Westley was now of getting away with his crimes and this mixed with increasingly violent fantasies spelled more trouble. In another statement he said “The more I thought about it, the more exciting the idea of murder sounded. I planned many ways to kill a boy. Then I started thinking of torture, castration, and even cannibalism.” This line alone just highlights how his fantasies had become even more dark and violent.
Onto his first murders…
The idea of killing had become increasingly exciting to Dodd as time went on. As written in his diary Dodd stated, “The more I thought about it, the more exciting the idea of murder sounded. I planned many ways to kill a boy. Then I started thinking of torture, castration, and even cannibalism.” This is a horrifying escalation and one which shows how the continued counselling had done nothing to curb his impulses. Dodd attempted to lure an 8 year old boy away from a park however the boy was suspicious and went home to report the incident to his father, frustrated Dodd gave up on this plan. That was until he came across brothers William Neer 10 and Cole 11. Stopping them on their bikes through a forest trail Dodd ordered the boys to follow him into the woods, before tying their hands together with shoelaces and ordering them to undress. Dodd began to molest Cole however when he tried to do the same Billy began crying too hard. Just pausing here it is hard to imagine the fear that these two boys must have felt and just emphasises what a monster Westley Allan Dodd was.
Dodd eventually cut the boys' restraints leading them to believe they were being let go before saying ‘There's just one more thing’. Dodd turned to Billy and stabbed him in the stomach before turning to Cole and stabbing him multiple times until he stopped moving. Billy was able to run however Dodd caught him and stabbed him multiple times leaving him for dead at the edge of the woods. This was a sickening act and is hard to even imagine something so savage happening to people so young, however this is a theme throughout this case.
After his first murder Dodd found that he got a greater high from killing and began writing some sickening things about murder in his diary. “Why? I don't know. I wanted to eat the genitals. Dead children would be a cheap way to feed my 'slaves" if I ever had any." He planned to cut a boy's genitals off and let him slowly bleed to death, or keep him alive and make him watch as he cooked the boy's genitals to eat, forcing him to eat some of it. He would serve a "mystery vegetable" -- the testicles from other boys -- and after revealing what the "vegetable" was, he would tell the kid that his were next. "And, hey, you eat beef liver, how about boy's liver? I was mainly interested in eating the genitals while kids watched...I was going to do this as a form of torture more than anything else." This passage of text taken from his diary just highlights the type of fantasies which were running through Dodd’s head and he wasn't done yet.
Dodd was frustrated by his first murders as he had not had time to carry out all his fantasies and decided his next murder would be different. Unfortunately the story does not get any easier and reaches its final tragic climax.
Dodd ,now 28 years old, began stalking the Richmond School playground until 4 year old Lee Iseli showed up with his brother. Dodd approached Lee and asked if he wanted to have some fun and make some money. Reluctant Lee followed Dodd and entered his car. Once inside Lee realised something was wrong however it was too late.
Dodd took Lee home and tied him up before molesting and taking photographs of the young boy. Dodd then left Lee to watch cartoons and headed back to his diary where he wrote out his numerous fantasies which he planned to act out on the boy. Dodd in a brazen act took Lee to K-mart to buy him a toy and when confronted by staff about the crying boy he claimed to be his babysitter. This seems like a crazy risk to take by Dodd however at this point he felt untouchingable having never been prosecuted correctly in the past.
Dodd returned home with Lee and continued to molest him during the night. In a sick act he woke the boy during the night and stated ‘I’m going to kill you in the morning’. Again it is hard to imagine the sort of fear this poor young boy was experiencing and is actually tough to even think about.
Dodd then followed through on his promise and strangled the young boy with his bare hands. He then revived the boy and used a shoelace to kill young Lee. Dodd then took shocking polaroids of the dead boy before hanging him in his wardrobe. The polariods were later found in a briefcase along with the boys underwear and those who have viewed those polaroids have never forgotten the depraved and evil actions of such a ruthless killer. Once returning from work Dodd disposed of the boy's body near some garbage, a perfect representation of how he felt about his victims. Dodd fantasised about killing using many different methods however thankfully he never got to try anymore with his capture coming before he got the chance to kill again.
Dodd tried to abduct a 6 year old boy at movie theatres, the brave young boy began to scream which alerted his parents and staff. Dodd was arrested and questioned over the attempted abduction. Under questioning Dodd broke and confessed to the 3 murders, detectives were left shocked by the full confession that he made.
At trial Dodd pleaded guilty to the crimes as he had given a full confession. During the confession he became visibly excited as he relieved each murder in its gruesome details. He also said he would immediately go back to ‘killing kids’ if he ever escaped and would kill anyone who stood in his way. He showed zero remorse and actually stated that he was bored during the trial. The level of disrespect this showed to the victims family was horrible. One juror almost passed out when being read extracts from Dodd’s sick diary. Eventually Dodd was sentenced to death and requested to be hanged, the judge approved this. Dodd would be the first man to be hanged since 1965 when he was eventually executed in 1993 at the age of 32. His last words were "I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said no. I was wrong."
Thank you for reading.
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